Thread: Logically, why SHOULD text change upon multiple readings?

I think the more pertinent question, would be "Why should text stay the same in a dream?"

It's obvious why it would stay stable in waking life: because it has an independent objective existence apart from your thoughts and perception.

In a dream there is no independent, stable reality for you to percive.
Everything is created within your brains world-modeling system. There is no stability inherent in this system. There is no world outside yourself to percive. Your perception IS the world.

In the real world just because you cant see what is behind you dosn't stop it existing. In the dream world however, this is not the case, It exists because you percive it, or more to the point your direct perception of the dream, is the dream.

Why should text be different from other seemingly more stable elements of dreams? Well, that's another important question. Perhaps much of what you experience is based mostly on memory data. The stability and quality of this data is no doubt related to how well established it is as a neural pathway. It would make sense that a memory (neural pattern/pathway system) that is both older and used often by the brain, would be better established, "written in darker ink in the diary of your mind". So that for example, a house you've lived in 10 years, is more likely to be firmly recorded in your mind, than say, the office you visited for the first and last time today.

Perhaps also, language in the form of written text, is a reasonably new development in the human mind, compared to say, percetption of space, colour, texture, sound. All of which would have been established in the human mind, since the dawn of the human mind. The ability to read however, is a learnt skill, rather than having a basis in the basic survival needs of the human mind, it most likely it takes a combination of mental processes to occur. It's a juggling act between different psychological systems, so is more unstable because of that. Visual processing, pattern recognition, cross referenced with the language centers of the brain, and as a learnt rather than inherent skill, will require more processing power in minds recall/memory systems.

I would assume that a combination of the factors above, and probably other factors (such as the level of activity of different brain regions whilst in REM compared to waking) is the reason why our brains find it harder to model stable text.

In fact from the thoughts above I would posit, that naturaly occuring objects and environments (such as the sea, the sky, trees, plants, the natural world) will be more stable in the dreamscape than man-made objects and environments. I would also go as far as to say, the more complex and modern the man made item/enviroment, the higher the chance for it to be prone to dream instability. Would make an interesting area of study perhaps?


Also, Yosemine,
I too wondered along your lines of thought, however, the other day, a friend of mine, who's never heard anything about lucid dreaming, saw my galantamine pills (which i never use but like to have handy just in case) and asked what they were for. I explained the basic idea of lucid dreaming, and gave him a couple. Never explained anything about dreamsigns, text changing whatsoever.
The next day, his lucid dream report was full of these kinds of dreamsigns (text changing on his mobile phone etc.). Regardless of him expecting them to happen, as he had no idea. I also went as far as to double check he'd not read something, or i'd not told him and forgotten. He swears that he had no idea.


EDIT: it's also just occured to me that reading text in a dream, and remembering it, would be a process of the short term memory. We all know that memory in dreams is one of the most highly effected areas of the dream experience. Perhaps the more stable items are those things reliant on long term memory, and short term memory is is culprit.